St Catherine's chapel or "chapelle d’Herbais"

 
St Catherine's chapel, or 'chapelle d’Herbais' is a fairly modest Gothic structure built in the 13th century. It is made up of a single nave with four bays opening into a chancel that is narrower and lower, and ending in an apse with three walls. An interesting feature is that the chevet is decorated where each wall joins with a slim limestone column resting on a buttress and capped with a hook cornice, a touch that is not unlike that in the chancel of the church of Saint-Médard in Jodoigne.
Major modifications were made to the building in the second half of the 18th century. In the main, these changes included creating a limestone doorway along the axis of the chapel. This doorway supplanted the original, which can still be seen, walled up, in the northern side wall. The addition of a pinnacle and broad windows to replace the Gothic openings were also part of these alterations. Some of the changes were removed during a restoration programme conducted by R. Vandendaele and R.M. Lemaire that was completed in 1971. The choice recommended during these works was based on restoring the building to its presumed original condition. The windows, with their pointed arches, were recreated based on preserved remains, just as preference was given to the initial volume of the nave. The works also enabled the badly damaged frescoes from the 16th and 17th centuries to be highlighted on the triumphal arch that separates the nave from the chancel. These frescoes depict the Final Judgement.
The chapel is situated alongside an enclosed cemetery that contains some gravestones dating back to the 16th century and adjoins a quadrilateral farmyard built on the site of a seigniorial house, the two buildings forming an isolated group.
Building listed on 02/12/1959
 

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